Isabella's Point of View
I was wiping down the counter when the door swung open.
The bell above it rang, but it barely registered in my mind. My gaze lifted, and there he was.
Sid Arius Aurelio D'Amato.
The world didn't just slow down—it stopped.
People kept moving, talking, laughing around him, but I couldn't hear any of it. My chest tightened, my hands stilled mid-wipe, and suddenly, all the ordinary details of the bar—the smell of spilled whiskey, the hum of the fridge, the sticky floor—faded into the background.
He stepped inside like he belonged there, though I knew he didn't. And yet, somehow, he did.
"Evening," he said, low, smooth, a voice that seemed to wrap around you and squeeze without warning.
I swallowed, hoping my pulse didn't betray me. "Evening," I managed, keeping my tone neutral, professional.
His eyes met mine, dark, intense, and just for a moment… it felt like he could see everything.
The small lies I told myself, the careful walls I had built around my life, the fear I tried to hide.
I felt heat rise to my cheeks. Ridiculous. I didn't even know him. Not really. And yet, here he was, pulling me into something I couldn't name, something I couldn't resist.
"You're Isabella," he said, almost a statement, not a question.
I blinked. "Yes. How… how did you—?"
"A friend mentioned you." His lips curved into that half-smile, the one that made danger look like temptation. "I wanted to see for myself."
Something in my chest tightened again. Admiration, fear, and something darker all at once. My instincts screamed at me to step back, to hide, to pretend I wasn't here. But my body betrayed me. I couldn't move. Couldn't speak.
He moved closer, enough to feel the faint scent of his cologne, the subtle power radiating off him like an aura. My hands clenched at my sides.
"Relax," he said softly, but there was nothing soft about it. It was commanding, deliberate. "I won't bite… unless you want me to."
I froze, my mind screaming at me to leave, my heart arguing that maybe, just maybe, this was the moment I had been waiting for without knowing it.
"You…" I started, then stopped. Words failed me. My normal, steady life didn't prepare me for this—didn't prepare me for him.
Sid's gaze didn't waver. He leaned slightly on the counter, eyes locked on mine. "Don't be afraid. Not yet."
And just like that, the ordinary, safe world I had built around me cracked. The walls I had worked so hard to maintain trembled. Because Sid wasn't just a man.
He was a storm, and I had just stepped into the eye of it.